Blanco y Colorado: Old Days among the Gauchos of Uruguay

In this vivid memoir a traveler recounts his arrival in Montevideo at the close of World War I, stepping off the steamship into a sun‑lit harbor framed by white‑washed roofs and the gentle green slope of the Cerro. He spends an evening wandering the orderly streets, admiring the bustling markets, elegant plazas and the exotic gardens of nearby villas before settling into a modest inn for the night. The narrative captures the crossroads of Southern‑American charm and European influence, painting a lively portrait of a city poised between tradition and modernity.

At dawn he joins a rattling wooden diligence, the only long‑distance coach traversing the countryside, and sets out across the sweeping plains toward a remote estancia. Along the way he meets a colorful cast of fellow passengers—businessmen, a French‑speaking merchant and a young lieutenant—while the skilled “quartia dor” guides the horse team through rolling hills and muddy tracks. The journey offers a tactile sense of Uruguay’s rugged interior, its rhythms and the early‑20th‑century spirit of adventure that animates the whole account.